Final table ICM lessons from Lex Veldhuis and bungakat

Imagine how disappointed a marathon runner would be if they’d run an incredible race only to stumble and fall on the home straight, costing them a podium finish. You can bet they’d do everything in their power to make sure that never happens again.

The same thing happens in poker: players play great for hours on end to reach a final table only to then make huge ICM mistakes when the prize money is most meaningful. You’d think that poker players would then spend hours studying ICM on final tables to make sure it doesn’t happen again, but most don’t.

This gives those who do a huge edge.

And as Twitch superstar and poker legend Lex Veldhuis points out in his Lex Bundle for BBZ Poker, no player has studied more ICM simulations than BBZ coach Jargo “bungakat” Alaväli.

“If you have played against him you’ll know he’s very annoying to play against,” says Lex. “He’s aggressive, he’s hyper-aware of situations and dynamics, and he’s also studied more ICM than almost any player in the game. All of these factors combine to make him a force to be reckoned with on final tables, on bubbles, at pay jumps, all that stuff.”

If you regularly watch Lex on Twitch–and let’s face it, we all do–then you’ll know how fantastic a player Lex is. But you might also be wondering, why does a player as great as Lex need to keep studying ICM?

Because that’s what great players do. “I’m comfortable with my ICM game but there’s always more to learn,” he says. “What better person to learn from than bungakat?”

Here are just two of the many final table ICM lessons we learn from bungakat’s coaching section of the Lex Bundle, which you can grab today for just $99.99.

TIP: If you’re not sure what ICM is, check out our article: An introduction to ICM in poker tournaments

CALLING RANGES

The final table in question is from the $1K Sunday High Roller, one of the week’s toughest regular tournaments. It always attracts the cream of the crop and that cream always rises to the top, as you can see from the players Lex shares the FT with:

• Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot
• Sam “SamSquid” Grafton
• Ole “wizowizo” Schemion
• Bert “girafganger7” Stevens
• Jans “Graftekkel” Arends
• Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs
• Simon “Igorkarkarof” Pedersen
• Stevan “random_chu” Chew

The first hand we’re going to look at involves calling ranges on final tables.

“Igorkarkarof” opens to 2.34x from UTG+1 and Tonkaaaa flats from the lojack. Lex has A♥8♥ in the cutoff and bungakat asks him whether he ever has a calling range here.

“I think I only play three-bet or fold in this spot,” Lex answers.

It might seem appealing to flat with suited aces in this spot with the hope of flopping a disguised two pair or, better yet, a flush, but according to bungakat, calling here would be a huge mistake.

“This seems to be one of the spots where a lot of people are making mistakes if you look at solver solutions,” he says. “Solvers don’t have any calls here–perhaps a little calling with pocket jacks, tens, or nines–but in general this spot should be played three-bet or fold.”

Bungakat still sees a lot of players on final tables go for calls with hands like J10-suited in this kind of situation. “It’s kind of terrible,” he says. “It’s bad in general.”

What makes it so terrible?

“Because of Tonkaaaa’s calling range,” bungakat explains. “[Igorkarkarof] should already be opening under 18% of hands. His opening range should be around 15%-18%, so for Tonkaaaa to even have a calling range here is going to be [problematic for us].”

Lex then points out something he considered in-game. The final table chip leader, girafganger7, is on Tonkaaaa’s direct left, making Tonkaaaa’s calling range seem even stronger.

“Girafganger7 has 15 big blinds more than number two in chips,” says Lex. “So for Tonkaaaa to flat with the chip leader behind him makes his flatting range even stronger. Honestly, I would think he flats a lot of hands from the top of his range too with possible back-raising opportunities.”

Here’s a look at what bungakat suggests Tonkaaaa’s calling range should look like:

“I’ve worked with Tonkaaaa a lot and he still tends to get a bit out of line because he just doesn’t care,” says bungakat. “But his range should be something along these lines [see above]. It’s debatable whether you even want to flat this wide.”

Against that range, it’s almost impossible for us to be ahead by clicking the call button. “That’s why we don’t really have a calling range here,” says bungakat. “Even if you have pocket jacks, you probably want to fold here or mix a fold. You don’t really want to jam because you don’t block much with jacks.”

As you can see from the range, Tonkaaaa’s flatting range is so tight that it’s likely you’ll only get called by better hands should you shove. “Do you really want to bluff with jacks here?” asks bungakat. “At least with a hand like AQ-suited you block pocket queens and pocket aces for all of the players.”

Remember this the next time you’re at a final table and your mouse hovers over the call button.

OPENING SIZES AND 3-BET DEFENDS

The next hand we’re going to look at sees Lex open to 2.05x from the lojack with A♥J♣ off of 36 big blinds. Igorkarkarof is in the big blind and covers Lex with 44 bigs.

“This is a spot where I like your size, but something to consider might be [opening to] 2.5x,” says bungakat. “Whenever you’re opening into a bigger stack, you can choose to size up. You’re supposed to be opening around 20% here, so when you’re opening an already tight range, you get to size up.”

For bungakat, it all comes down to how aggressive he believes his opponents are going to play against min-raises. “Against aggressive players, I’m typically going to size up,” he says.

A problem with min-raising is that some players are going to defend far too wide from the big blind.

“That’s very interesting because I’d typically never use 2.5x size on final tables unless there are 20-22 big blind stacks behind and I want to take a five-big-blind 3-bet out of their arsenal,” says Lex.

Graftekkel then 3-bets to 5.5x from the button and it folds back to Lex. Bungakat confirms that AJ-off should be a fold, but asks about Lex’s defending range against 3-bets.

“The first thing I’ll look at when I get 3-bet in this position is: does the person cover me?” Lex says. “If they cover me I’ll go into 4-bet or fold mode because of ICM pressure. But I have some trouble knowing what hands to defend when I cover them and they 3-bet.”

But according to bungakat, Lex is mistaken in thinking that the stacks are going to matter too much in these spots.

“The general logic from ICM solutions is that whenever you open, on average you’ll need to defend a third of your range against a 3x 3-bet,” says bungakat. “In this instance, Graftekkel went a bit smaller, but the idea is you’ll need to defend one-third of your range.”

If Lex should only be opening with ~20% of his opening range here, that means he needs to fight back with around 7% of his range. So, assuming our opponent has a correct bluffing frequency, how does a solver filter down the range to 7%?

You can take a look at bungakat’s prediction below:

“There is no way you can know what your opponent is going to 3-bet for value and what combos he’ll choose to bluff with, so what I typically do in these spots–assuming he’ll find enough bluffs–is I’m going to jam something along these lines,” says bungakat.

It all comes back to Lex’s open.

“If you’re not willing to 4-bet jam against this guy’s 3-bet with this type of range, then you’re not supposed to be opening 21% anymore,” he says. “You’re meant to be opening 18% or 15%. Then for 18%, you’d only have to defend around 6% and it’s not that difficult to find 6% jams.”

These were just two of the many spots Lex and bungakat cover in more than 125 minutes of videos from the Lex Bundle. Make sure you check out the full bundle today!